Pearce Hire powers Classic Ibiza concerts
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Lisa Ward, director of Revival Productions, explains the rationale behind the Classic Ibiza concerts: “We had been looking for an alternative to a traditional classical prom to appeal to a younger audience, but still with picture perfect picnic settings. Our English stately homes are stunning locations and just perfect for a posh rave!”
Revival Productions has been a client of Pearce Hire’s for several years with Pearce Hire providing production services year-on-year for their annual Great British Proms - an open-air celebration of classical music. Classic Ibiza was conceived as an extra event two years ago and this year Revival Productions expanded the Classic Ibiza series to six venues across nine weeks. Pearce Hire was appointed by Revival Productions to provide a full technical production package (audio, lighting and staging) and temporary power for the shows.
Lisa explains: “Appointing Pearce Hire as our production company was not a difficult decision - we’ve had the pleasure of working with Pearce Hire on many corporate and other productions over the years so continuing our relationship with them for the Classic Ibiza events made perfect sense.”
Classic Ibiza offered a heady mixture of popular Ibiza tunes in spectacular surroundings, starting at Capesthorne Hall in Cheshire at the end of June, followed by Ragley Hall (Warwickshire), Harewood House (West Yorkshire), Bowood House (Wiltshire), the National Trust’s Blickling Estate in Norfolk and finally Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. There was even time for a guest show for the Summertime Live Promotion at Windsor Racecourse in July where Pearce Hire provided the Audio control package.
Throughout the whole series of events concert goers enjoyed spectacular performances from the Urban Soul Orchestra and DJ Goldierocks which were complimented by laser and lighting shows that lit up the summer skies.
Project-managed by Steve Hicks, the Pearce Hire team addressed the key elements of Revival Production’s comprehensive brief which included the provision of smooth audio coverage for a maximum capacity 7,500 audience whilst being sensitive to strict noise limits at the unique country house settings.
Given the size of the orchestral performance for the Classic Ibiza gigs, Pearce Hire made considerable investments specifically to fulfil the audio requirements of this style of event. This included a significant inventory of DPA 4099 instrument mics to cover all the strings, brass and woodwind sections of the orchestra, Shure ULX-D digital wireless systems and a large investment in fibre optic multicores for audio and lighting.
The PA system consisted of L-Acoustics K2, X8, Arcs Wide and SB28 subwoofers for the main system and KARA and SB18 subwoofers for the delay hangs. The desk package was a Yamaha CL5 on monitors and Allen & Heath dLive S7000 at FOH.
The lighting brief was to offer a spectacular light and laser show similar to that experienced by Ibiza club goers. The Revival Productions team asked Pearce Hire to create a lighting design which had great ‘eye candy’ impact. Specified by Steve Hicks, and designed by Paul Fairfield, the desired look for an immersive outdoor lighting effect was achieved using a host of SGM LT-100 LED pixel tubes, supported by Robe Pointes and LEDWash 1200s, and Clay Paky Stormys, all controlled by a Chamsys MQ100.
To provide the power to achieve the high production expectations for the Classic Ibiza concerts, just two 100 kVA synchronised generators were used for the main production sets as well as site-wide generators and power distribution for audience services, concessions, and backstage production requirements.
(Jim Evans)
